In hospitals, waste body fluids are drained from patients both during operations and during recovery from operations. For proper hygiene, the waste blood or body secretions are pumped into special medical fluid waste bags. Sterilization of the medical fluid waste bags before disposal has been known to be a difficult procedure.
In the art of waste disposal for waste contained in bags, it is known to provide a machine for mechanically opening and emptying bags containing a toxic product in which a conveyor automatically feeds the bags to severing means for cutting open the bags at which point the bags are automatically emptied thus separating the contents of the bag from the bag itself. Such a device is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,438. In the medical field, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,152 to provide a machine for the automatic emptying of bags containing frozen fresh blood and separating the bag from its contents. It is also known in the art from U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,488 to dispense a flowable material through a flexible wall of a bag in which a sealing ring is included in the bag by puncturing the bag using a tubular cutting member sealingly engaged to the bag and over the ring.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a process for treating a bag containing medical fluid waste in which the bag, is safely emptied for safe disposal of its contents as liquid waste, in which the bag is properly disinfected for safe disposal or recycling of the bag.